so welcome to another lockdown edition of bike for Tuesday's while filming the last episode it dawned
on me that this saddle has a massive massive cutout in it we're gonna discuss why saddles
have massive cutouts in them what does it do do you need one you take this seriously please the
concept of pressure relief channel is to follow up relieve pressure but we're looking at relieving
pressure from sensitive areas usually the perineum to reduce the likelihood of gentle numbness and
discomfort perineum is an area of soft tissue between your legs I'm a firm believer in pressure
relief channels on cells on the grounds that as a human being you were not intended to sit
on your genitals on a hard piece of foam the concept of a pressure relief channel as it is
to relieve that soft tissue and then and provide abate a greater engagement with the skeleton now
it's worth noting that all cells that possess pressure relief channels were all cells full
stop are intended to be sat on symmetrically one of the reasons why that might be bigger than other
pressure relief channels is because the larger the pressure of relief channel the higher likelihood
there is of the rider actually hitting it I mean so for example if you consider that human
beings an asymmetrical entity and a bicycle is a very symmetrical piece of equipment they don't
necessarily always interact with one another in exactly the fashion the BAPS manufacturers
intended them to so with a larger pressure relief channel if you've got a rider that's it rotated
or slightly lists or on-site they potentially have higher likelihood of hitting that pressure relief
Channel I relieving the pressure in areas that are needed rather than actually developing numbness
or something like that so what about saddle like this it doesn't have a pressure relief channel so
it's got kind of dent towards the back I don't know if you're gonna sit on that bit it's been
designed for a reason that people use them I feel that this sounds sort of designed with tradition
in mind more than anything else and to be honest I like fabric cells I get on I sell a reasonable
amount of them and sounds like this tend to work best for riders who can't write a sample with
pressure relief channel so if you have someone who is publicly disoriented that they have a rotation
in their pelvis they have a lateral pelvic tilts then they are not going to necessarily sit on
the saddle squarely and the problem with sounds like this it relies upon the rider sitting on him
pretty symmetrically in order for it to offer you any form of comfort if that cannot occur due to a
writer's physiological restrictions or limitations then something like this tends to offer slightly
better relief because you can interact with it a symmetrically that being said in in a bike fit
scenario I almost always try to get someone sat on a ourselves squarely not always achievable but on
the grounds that when use in traumatic when you in when you interact with a satellite symmetrically
usually create much much higher likelihood of saddle sores so the single most common cause
for saddle sores or is a poor interaction with the Sabbath rather than necessarily cleanliness
or short I mean penniless and short fit are absolutely things we take into consideration they
absolutely will influence saddle sores but the the major driver really is actually an asymmetrical
interaction which is why you would get south sores in the same place on the same side so I
know that I sit a little bit walking on the bike is the reason I find this saddle more comfortable
than my other ones because the channel is so big probably exactly the reason we discussed a minute
ago yeah absolutely I mean it might be that you do because you do sit a little bit skew but you
know you're it's also a little bit more slender than the Sun so you've been riding historically
you know you've slender guys so I mean these are like 135 more wide whereas historically you've
ridden 143 Roman you know having something that's eight millimeters narrower may absolutely improve
things for you would it be fair to recommend that someone having issues a bit subtle try something
out with a bigger pressure relief before going straight to something with our pressure even
whatsoever I think that the nature of people's saddle problems is almost always need to do with
the saddle itself this is a funny thing to say but saddle discomfort has nothing to do with saddles
it's almost exclusively to do with how the riders interacting with it the two most common traits
that we see in rider's positions through here that contributes saddle problems are excessive saddle
height because the rider usually lists to one side which creates this asymmetrical interaction or and
or excessive reach which results in the right of gravitation the nose of the sad sort of juice the
roof because people's position is self-select and they sit on the narrowest portion of the saddle
and that again will cause you sound problems so I think that you know saddles get a really bad
rap people people will say oh you know I try to specialize to pay for example which is our life
I've been riding over thousands of miles and never had problems with and you know how it's
like a razor blade well it's not it's quite good sample that's just to do with the fact that you've
probably got a shape position so there aren't really any bad saddles per se I mean even from
the dreaded F brand can I say that yeah I guess I can contact you know if it works but it works for
you but I think one thing the one myth I think we ought to dispel is that you can probably write a
multitude of different sounds I hope guys come in here and they got crate sucks there's been
thousand pounds of saddles and they come in they plunk it down they all right which of these is
gonna work best for me and the answer is probably all of them so you I mean like I've got five bikes
with five different salads on it and yeah right all of them with no reasonable degree of comfort
so I don't think that the myth is that you know salads are really specific to an individual it's
not a bike fit is yeah and your position is very specific to the individual but saddle selection
isn't you know to be honest with you most of them are kind of the same thing anyway I mean if you
look at hang on a minute if you consider that so this is my old to pay off I think it's off my
autumn which is actually it's one of my favorite saddles but I am also writing a program and I'm
not being funny there isn't really a massive difference between two i mean ii sat on them i
can't tell the difference you know Bontrager makes herself called of montrose very very similar to
this I mean and actually at the moment I mean I'm not specialized dealership so no I saw specialist
Avenue bar this is our best selling saddles nice and flat it's got reasonable pressure
relief channel and it's it's flat both in this plane but also in this plane which I quite like
in the sense that it doesn't tend to pitch rides into the front of it one of the issues we found
with the Roman which is a very popular sample is that the weather it kicks up at the back can have
a tendency of throwing the rider into the front of the bike not always but sometimes so moral of the
story here check your saddle height first it's not always going to be your saddle causing the issue I
think when you consider that for example we never approve through using pressure mapping that things
like plate setback starts with handlebar drop all have massive ramifications in salads I mean I
think the the the resounding point of this should be it's down to position rather than down to down
to a saddle itself so this comfort doesn't come from sellers it comes from elsewhere excessive
reach excess of saddle height insufficient stance the excessive starts no I have arch support I mean
we found even using like a g8 footbed we've been able to reduce the pressure gradually this other
way up to 50% which is some massive number so you know I think the saddle this comber isn't
as simple as as just moving yoga endlessly trying to replace the saddle and find the perfect saddle
there are probably a number of cells out there for you it's really down to bad positioning so there
you go just shows again it's always important to check the rest of your position not necessarily
the one component you think it might be as usual links down below if you want to check out James's
shop you want to support him through the I'm store and he bite pretty related questions
you have put them down below and we'll do our best to answer them and thank you for watching